Who Are We

Meet the contributors. Jason Cole, Photographer.

Text by Miguel Caparros Photos by Jason Cole and Miguel Caparros

I am the luckiest editor in the world. I some how manged to get some of the best photographers tojoin me in this adventure. Jason Cole is one of our "youngsters", when I first saw his wheel standing photos from Paradise Drag Strip Calhoun Georgia, where he is the official photographer, I knew I was looking at a special talent. As a motor sports photographer I can really appreciate just how difficult it is to get consistent action shots. Jason is like a pro gunslinger, he never misses. His first submission was a wheel standing Mustang, I inspected the image it is crystal clear and sharp as a tack. I immediately went to his web site. Shot after shot of great images and he can write to! He has a "day job" working at a carpet manufacturer in Dalton Georgia and a wonderful family. I briefly got to meet the Cole clan at Road Atlanta where Jason also proved his mettle at shooting the Formula Drift like a true Pro, he also caught the action of the formula cars that weekend too. I hope this evolves into a long relationship and a full time living for this very talented, professional "youngster".

Who is driving and where are we going?

Words and photos by Miguel Caparros. Last Sunday, the first Sunday of the month, a monthly ritual takes place in the Atlanta area. At 6 am people begin to gather at a parking lot in Alpharetta Georgia. The event is the Caffeine and Octane cruise, now its sixth month at the Barnes and Noble's and Starbucks coffee Parking lot. It is a rather large lot, with 750 parking spots with an additional parking lot available for another 600 cars. Last Sunday by 8 am the main lot was full by 9 am the overflow lots were filled and spectators were parking across the street in the Toy's R Us lot. They come to the cruise to see the most eclectic collection of vehicles that gather anywhere. From the exotic to the unusual and sometimes the absurd, at one point or another they all show up here. There is no judging no prizes no cost except the fuel to get there, and maybe a pastry and some Starbucks coffee. The exit parade begins at about 10:30 by 11:30 the lots are empty.

This event began almost six years ago at another mall when some enthusiast got together to bring customers to a friends Panera Bread store. Five cars showed up on that first Saturday. When the numbers got to be in the hundreds the mall management requested they move it to Sunday from 7:30 am to 11 am. Last November and December the attendance of cars went over 700. The mall management had enough, the event had to go. Much to the displeasure and financial loss of the Panera Bread and some of the other stores that did a thriving business by opening early on one Sunday each month. The big blow was to the Panera Bread that could cover all of their expenses and rent for the month being open from 6 am to 12 noon on that Sunday.

One of the participants at the original gathering is a police Sargent from Alpharetta, he paved the way for the seamless move, seeing the financial gains that would also help the local coffers in these lean times. 

While other venues are loosing participants we are seeing a resurgence of the cruises. This does not bode well for the promoters that charge gates or for the trophy makers. At first I thought it was a cultural thing, the baby boomers trying to turn the clock back, but it is much more than that, it is not age specific as the participants are a total cross section of the age groups. Maybe it is better to call it the California factor. Cruises never waned there and if anything they have flourished and become very sophisticated. I was rather taken aback when I first started to pay attention to the Atlanta area events, and how different they were from what I was accustomed to in California.

There have been some distinct diversion. The bar/restaurant shows, designed to attract customers to those venues and draw from 40 cars to 100 people, the larger numbers being rare. The Corporate fund raisers such as the annual UPS Kimberly Clark show are very well organized, regarded and attended. They are growing and last years event had 350 entries. The promoted out door shows are risky at best here in the south, they need large numbers just to make the nut and there is always the threat of wet or too hot weather. Mostly held at county fair grounds and race tracks, I have noticed a large drop in attendance at these venues.

The tuner market has had a major set back as there have been internal and external battles with NOPI, who was the major tuner events promoter.At this point NOPI has shut down their travelling tuner shows. ImportAtlanta.com who was at one point a sponsor of NOPI and then a competitor seems to be very quiet too. The only big thing in the tuner community is the Import alliance event that was huge and again it was a cruise in of major proportions. See my April article here. Even the big events such as, The International Auto Shows and World of wheels have to compete for attendance with professional sports events such as football, basketball and baseball.  Tthere may be to many events as the non profits, churches and the schools have hopped on the car show wagon as a way of raising funds. Thinks are changing stay tuned.

Tell Us About Your First Car

By Miguel Caparros

Strangely enough I have not put on paper much about my first car. It was 1968, I was attending Plymouth High School in New Hampshire. I had my learners permit at 14 and could not wait until my 16th birthday to legally get on the road with out an adult. Your past rules your future and mine was thick with European car influences. Among those that influenced me was my apprenticeship teacher,Claude Meder who was an ex works driver for Peugeot, Renault and Dyna Panhard, also my fathers rally tested Peugeot 404 made me want one of my own. I wanted a car that was up to the challenge of the back roads of rural New England, a young man's dreams of the Monte Carlo Rally or the East Africa Safari Rally. I was destined to race with the best, so I needed a world class car to cut my teeth on. Besides my father's 404 a few VW's there were not many foreign cars in central New Hampshire, except for this grey Peugeot 403 that I would see in town every so often. One day I approached the driver of the car and asked him if he was interested in selling it. The answer was yes, as anything he drove was for sale, he was the owner of the local junk yard in Plymouth. The car was a 1959. It ran and shifted well, the sun roof worked and it had all the things a proper New England car has, rust holes here and there but for the most part it was in good shape. The 4 on the tree confounded my friends and the American hot rodder in me wanted to convert it to a floor shift. The French must have had a very serious problem with hub cap theft as all of our French cars had caps that bolted on to the center. $125.00 dollars exchanged hands and I now owned the Junk Mans Car. First thing I did was to take it home and clean it. After I washed it I started to polish the paint with compound. The grey chalky color came off on the polishing cloth and below was a light green color with some great shine.  All the bright trim on the Peugeot's was stainless steel and after I polished all the trim and bumpers it was another car altogether. The summer of this car was full of adventures and happy times that are still fresh in my mind, "give or take a lie or two".

Confessions of a Motor Head. Racing on the streets of Boston.

by Miguel Caparros

1969 was the beginning of my senior year of high school in Plymouth New Hampshire. By November it seemed it would be the mildest and least snowfall in a long time. I knew this as in December I was still driving my Alfa Romeo Gulietta, a car who's incredible sexy looks and great handling were completely unbearable if the temperature dropped much below 30 degrees.

1970 was going to be a banner year for Chevrolet and Pontiac, the long awaited replacement for the three year old Camaro and Firebird had the industry buzzing about a radical redesign of the GM twins. In an unusual move, GM chose not to release these 1970 sporty cars at the traditional September new car introduction, but give a dramatic introduction in January for the long awaited duo.

In mid December we received our debut 1970 Camaro Z28, it came in wrapped and it was spirited away and hidden not to be seen until the new year.

At this point I was dating Darcy Hosmer from Lawrence Massachusetts, She was a student at the Frontenac Ski camp where I worked during the winters. A total coincidence was that her father John Hosmer owned the largest Pontiac Dealership in the Boston area. On one Friday night I drove down for a date with Darcy, it was the week before Christmas I arrived a little early. While waiting for Darcy to get ready, Mr Hosmer and I talked about cars. He asked what I drove down in this time, we went outside so he could get a look at the bright read Alfa. I mentioned to him we had received a Z28, I asked what he got. We walked a few paces to one of the Carriage House doors, went inside a moment passed before he flipped on the lights. There sat a blue formula 400, but unlike the crouching stance of the Z28, this car squatted towards the rear. The scoops sticking out of the hood ready to devour any one that came close. A very subtle emblem at the rear hinted at what this was, it read Royal Oaks Pontiac!

Royal Oaks Pontiac was the back door factory drag race team for Pontiac Since the the late 50's the Royal Oaks Michigan machines were the cars to beat in Super Stock right into the 70's. In those days you could order from select dealers, a race car for the street and it would get the final assembly at Royal Oaks. The Hosmer car got the whole treatment, The car left the factory as a Formula 400 with a few deleted items; deleted heater, deleted power steering, deleted rear seat, deleted insulation, deleted sound deadening, deleted spare tire and jack, deleted power brakes, deleted radio.

Once it got to Royal Oaks Pontiac the 400 engine would be pulled out and replaced by a 455 12.5 compression motor with special heads, cam, intake, carburetor, headers. A set of special chambered (no mufflers) exhaust pipes are hooked up to the headers equipped with cut outs. The Battery would be removed from the
front of the car and a larger heavy duty truck battery would be installed in the right rear of the trunk. The rear springs would be replaced with heavy duty leaves, 9 on the left 7 on the right. The shocks were replaced by specially valved 90 10 units, these refer to shocks that would allow the front to rise and stay there transferring weight to the rear tires and slowly allowing the front end to come down. A 4:56 Detroit Locker put the power to the ground from the Rock Crusher 4 speed transmission.

This car was engineered with one purpose, to get from a stop to the end of a quarter mile as fast as possible. This car was very good at that. Darcy Joined us in the drive way and gave her dad a peck on the cheek, as we walked towards
the Alfa Mr Hosmer called out to us, we turned around to see a set of keys flying through the air towards us. I caught them as he yelled. “ I don't want to hear that this car lost a street race tomorrow.”.

The noise from this car was incredible, more so inside than on the outside and it was plenty loud out there. The thrill of being in a full blown race car of a model the is not yet available and to this point kept a secret; was pure adrenalin.
With Darcy my inspiration and navigator we hit every drive in and did at least 30 races with no one even coming close to the Firebird. After a whole night of being mobbed as celebrities where ever we went we finally made it back to the Hosmer compound at 3 am where the cook made us hot chocolates, def as posts we snuggled on the couch
drinking our chocolates and we fell asleep, our ears ringing with the noise of the exhaust the tires screeching and the rush of incredible acceleration our bodies tingling from 6 hours in a factory built race car. How fast was this car? From what I was told later, this car could do the ¼ mile in the low 11 sec time, on street tires. I have never forgotten you Darcy.